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Mike Kelly, who is running for the Chatham Township Committee, got involved in the discussion over the controversial ordinance to vacate a walkway easement between Pine Street and Linden Lane.
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Fireworks Come Early for Chatham Township Committee

By Ed Barmakian

Friday, April 11, 2014 • 1:25am

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CHATHAM, NJ - One piece of business that the Chatham Township Committee approved on Thursday night was the expenditure for a Fourth of July fireworks display.

But the verbal fireworks were on display during a contentious meeting, where Bailey Brower Jr. lashed out at fellow committee member Katherine Abbott, intimating she was behind resident Sarah Fechtner's legal challenge to the committee.

In the end, the vote to adopt an ordinance that would vacate a walkway easement between Linden Lane and Pine Street was tabled until the township committee's next regular meeting on April 24.

Fechtner of 3 Rolling Drive hired an attorney, who sent a letter to the committee, challenging their legal right to vacate the walkway easement that was agreed upon in 1957. Retired township attorney, Carl Woodward, returned to offer his advice while current township attorney, Albert Cruz, recused himself from the proceedings.

Sarah Fechtner explains why she is against the ordinance and the legal argument in video below

The ordinance has been fraught with legal glitches from the start. The ordinance had to be reintroduced after it was determined that Brower posed a conflict of interest. Brower recused himself from discussion, but then decided to weigh in against the advice of Woodward, claiming Fechtner was "Abbott's hand maiden."

Woodward advised the committee to table the issue because he needed more time to go over the letter handed him that day by attorney Joseph E. Murray of Schiller & Pittenger, P.C.

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